in The Puritan, or The Widow of Watling Street (The Puritan Widow) — Middleton, Thomas
Metadata
Play
The Puritan, or The Widow of Watling Street (The Puritan Widow)
Author
Middleton, Thomas
Year (catalogued)
1607
First performance
1606
Decade
1600s
Genre
Comedy
Play type
Boys Professional
Company
Children of Paul's (second)
Speech prefix(es)
Nich. | Nicho. | Nich • . | Nic. | • Nich. | Nic
Words
832
Characters
4155
Typicality
0.36 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A11264
BritDrama no.
1509
Cluster
Cluster 13 — Attendant courtiers & citizens
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
What Corporal Oath? I am sorry we have met with you ext our hearts; you are the man that we are forbidden to keep company withal, we must not swear I can tell you, and you have the name for swearing. Oh Simon, what and oath was there. How, Captain Idle, my old Ants son, my deer Kinsman in Capadochio. Well Corporal, I'll even along with you, to visit my Kinsman, if I can do him any good, I will,—but I have nothing for him, Simon Saint Marry Oueris and Frailty, pray make a lie for me to the Knight my Master, old Fit Godfrey. Verily, and indeed la, Cozen?— O, I shall sown! Why Counterfeit zen? you know 'tis written, thou shalt not steal? Mass I think it be indeed, in what Chapter's that Cozen? The first of Charity, quam than, that's a good jest, there's no such Chapter in my book! That I will? I, that I will, Cozen. I, that would be good indeed? Kinsman? That were rare indeed la pray let me know how? And Actor? Oh no, that's a Player? and our Parson rails again Players mightily I can tell you, because they brought him drunk vpp'oth Stage once,—as he will be horribly drunk. I that, that. You see Cozen, I am willing to do you any kindness, always saving my self harmless? Why about your Neck, is't not sir. Master, thats my Kinsman yonder in the Buff-jerkin— Kinsman, thats my Master yonder ith' Taffety Hat—pray sa lute him entirely? Oh 'twas as delicious a Chain a Gold, Kinsman you know, — And as for the Devil Master, he has no needs on't, for you know he ha a great chain of his own? Oh 'twill tickle you here about Cozen, because you have not been used toot. Bear him in, quam than, pray call out the Maids, I shall never have the heart to doo't indeed la. Dear Master, o. I, you may say what you will, so you swear not. Hold, hold, good Corporal Oath; for if you swear once, we shall all fallen down in a sown presently. Assure you Corporal indeed-la, 'tis the first time I herd on't, O Simon, I have thought upon a found excuse, it will go currant, say that I am gone to a Fast; I, to a Fast say, with Master Full-belly the Minister. I, I pray Master keeper gives a cast of your office? within. How do you Captain Kinsman? You see Kinsman I am somewhat bold to call in, and see how you do, I herd you were safe enough, and I was very glad on't that it was no worse; I warrant my Kinsman's talking of me, for my left ear burns most tyrannically? O, my Cozen begins to speak to me now, I shall be acquainted with him again I hope, Cozen, if it lay in my power, as they say? — to — do; I would be heartily glad Cozen, if any of my friend ships, as they say, might—stand, ah, Steal my Masters chane quo the? no, it shall never be said that Nicholas Saint Tantlings committed Birdlime! Pray do not wish me to be hanged, any thing else that I can do, had it been to rob, I would would don't, but I must not steal, that's the word the literal, thou shalt not steal, and would you wish me to steal then? O I have fou ̄ worser and excellent advantage to take a way the chain, my Master put it off even now to say on a new Doub et, and I sneak't it away by little & little most Puritanically! we shall have good sport a non when ha missed it, about my Cozen the Conjurer the world shall see I'm and honest man of my word for now I'm going to hang it between Heaven & Earth among the Rosemary branches. I if it be lost or stole, if he would be patient Mistress I could bring him to a Cunning Kinsman of mine that would fetched again with a Sesar ra. Marry he dwells now Sir, where he would not dwell and he could choose: in the Marshalse sir; but he's and exlent fell low if he were out, has trauyld all the world over, he, and been in the seven and twenty Provinces: why he would make it be fetched Sir if it rid a thousand mile out of town. Why he did but rob a Steward of ten groats tother Night, as any man would would done, and there he lies fort. Puh I, I could would told you of that. Am I indeed la: I thank you truly la. O, as clear as a Cats eye, sir. Nay grace of God I'll rob him on't suddenly? and hang it in the Rosemary bank, but I bear that mind Cou zen I would not steal any thing me thinks for mine own Father. kinsman—Scholar?
Plot summary
Plot — The Puritan, or The Widow of Watling Street (The Puritan Widow)
Lady Plus has just been widowed, but her son Edmond. does not grieve appropriately at the funeral. She mourns a good, liberal husband, who strove to make his family rich by fair means and foul; she swears not to remarry, and her elder daughter Frances renounces marriage too. Not so her younger daughter, Moll, who entertains a suitor. The other two Plus women are also being pestered by unwanted suitors, one of whom has bribed Lady Plus’s brother-in-law, Sir Godfrey, to recommend him. Captain Idle is taken to prison for highway robbery; there he is visited by his puritan kinsman Nicholas, one of. the Plus household’s servants, and also by Skirmish and Pieboard, two tricksters who plan to get him out. To that end, they persuade Nicholas to steal Sir Godfrey’s chain. Pieboard visits Lady Plus posing as a fortune teller, and tells her that her husband is in purgatory, from which he can be released only if both she and her daughters reverse their marital intentions (which he has overheard): she and Frances must marry, and Moll must not. As a puritan, Lady Plus doubts the theology of this, so he establishes his authenticity by predicting that, before the day is out, there will be bloodshed outside her door and Sir Godfrey will suffer a loss, with worse to follow for the women of the household. The first two events are prearranged: Nicholas steals Sir Godfrey’s chain, and Skirmish and Corporal Oath feign a street-fight which results in a wound for Oath and arrest for Skirmish. Pieboard gives Oath a medicine which is actually a sleeping potion, so that he appears to have been killed. Nicholas tells Sir Godfrey that Idle is a conjurer who can get his chain back for him; so Sir Godfrey arranges for Idle to be released and the charges dropped. On his way to brief Idle, Pieboard is arrested for failing to pay his rent, but he escapes by pretending that he must deliver a masque device to a gentleman, who will pay him enough to settle the debt. On arrival at the gentleman’s house (chosen at random), he escapes through the back door while the officers wait for him in the front room. The next day, Idle undertakes his fake conjuring at Lady Plus’s house, and claims that the devil has delivered the lost chain in the garden (where in reality it has been hidden all the time). He also pretends to render Edmond invisible, which gets the young man into trouble when he takes the opportunity to buffet his uncle. Two processions pass the house, taking Oath to his funeral and…